Back in December, I bought a McFarland fiberglass blank off of eBay (8'0", 3 piece 5wt) on a chance. I'm glad I did. Here's the story.
When the blank arrived, my initial reaction was "this is a Lamiglas that's been coated". It had a beautiful slightly reddish brown finish on it like the old Fishers, but the yellow/honey spigot ferrules of the Lamis. Then I weighed and measured it: Compared to the similar model from Lamiglas, it's thinner in the butt section (0.440 vs. 0.510) and more than 1/2 oz lighter (1.55 vs 2.25 oz.). Mike isn't saying who builds is blanks, except that they are built to his specs and tapers. BTW, I believe that when Dwight Lyons as making fiberglass rods, he had a similar deal with Lamiglas, i.e., blanks made to his specs.
It's finished out now and it is truly a great rod. If I wasn't so hung up on bamboo, I'd use this exclusively on my home water (medium sized Appalachian stream). It's light in the hand (total weight = 2.90 oz. including a S/L aluminum seat) and throws beautiful loops and can even shoot a little line. The Lamis I've had in the 7'6" and 8'0" lengths seemed a little clunky to me, but this one is really different.
I'm going to try to include some pictures. This one's a keeper.
--Rich
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